ABSTRACT
The collected essays in this book wish to make a modest claim: even though some have
called for the end of ‘history’ and ‘theory’, Walter Benjamin’s oeuvre is still of interest as far
as the historicity of modern architecture is concerned. Though this claim might also apply
to a few other philosophers of the last century, Benjamin’s case remains unique. Consider
this: in the last two decades, architects and scholars have read and re-read essays of many
thinkers wishing to shed some light on the contemporaneity of architecture. Still many
have not given up the attempt to ‘fold’, ‘deconstruct’ and ‘phenomenologise’ architecture,
not only in seminar rooms but also in the abyss of design studios. There is something in
Benjamin’s work that remains unattainable to pragmatic ends. Yes, in the present trendy
and exhausted mood of ‘philosophy applied to architecture’, he has survived.
